The complexity of vehicle electronics has significantly increased during the last years. A large number of new functionalities require a significant amount of information to be optically displayed to the driver. This information is typically conveyed via a plurality of completely independent devices, such as the instrument cluster (behind the steering wheel), the center console (i.e. the control-bearing surfaces in the center area of the vehicle interior front beginning in the dashboard and continuing beneath it) and, increasingly often in modern cars, a head up display. With the exception of the center console, each of these information-conveying devices is typically configured for information of the driver only.
A conventional instrument cluster is shown in U.S. Design Pat. No. 637,128. In a conventional instrument cluster, information is provided to the driver by means of lamps or LEDs (for illuminating predefined warnings and pictograms), analog gauges and counters (using stepping motors), segment LCDs or even color LCD screens.
The usage of more versatile displaying devices, such as e.g. a thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) in the instrument cluster involves a number of challenges, in particular, costs, quality and reliability issues, system compatibility and scalability across a given range of products.
As concerns the head-up display, devices currently available on the market are offered as a package including the electronics, the relay optics, the picture generation unit and, in some cases, mechanisms enabling the deployment of the combiner. A head-up display of this type is disclosed in patent application WO2007/107515 A1. Head up displays of this type require a large packaging to be integrated under the dashboard. For reasons of available space, head-up displays have therefore been arranged only in front of the driver (behind—as seen from the driver—the instrument cluster). The viewing area of a typical head-up display is hence limited to a small area directly in front of the driver, which as a consequence limits the quantity of information to be displayed. Furthermore, the information displayed by conventional head-up displays can only be viewed by the driver, despite the benefits, not in terms of distraction but of safety, of displaying the information to the other passengers in the car.
Turning to the center console, currently available displays are limited in terms of size. Furthermore, the most elaborate display devices available to date have a flat screen, which restricts the design possibilities. There is interest in the automotive industry for a display device that can display information on a curved surface of the center console.